Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,010 issued Mar. 13, 1984 to Scheie, et al., the details of which are herein incorporated by reference, discloses a method and apparatus for determining the quantity of conditioner or dressing on the surface of a bowling lane. The apparatus therein disclosed utilizes a double thickness strip of transparent tape as a sample strip. A sample strip is obtained through the use of the apparatus disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,788 issued Dec. 11, 1984, also to Scheie, et al., the details of which are herein incorporated by reference. The subject matter of both patents has been commercialized by the assignee of the present application and has met with considerable success in allowing bowling center proprietors to keep track of dressing conditions on their lanes to assure that the lanes meet specifications of the appropriate bowling regulatory group, in the United States, the American Bowling Congress or ABC.
For example, if a bowling center requests certification, the same will be inspected and, if requirements met, a certificate issued. To retain the certificate, the American Bowling Congress specifically states:
"If dressing is used, it shall meet ABC/WIBC specifications and must comply with the following:
Dressing must be distributed from edgeboard to edgeboard for the entire predetermined distance down the lane (for example, and without limiting the distance, 35-40 feet from the foul line). Following any application of dressing, in the dressed portion of the lane, there shall be a minimum of 3 units of dressing at all points on the lane surface. A unit is defined as a measurement of dressing film thickness equivalent to 0.0167 cubic centimeters of dressing per square foot of lane surface as measured by ABC/WIBC approved lane dressing measuring equipment."
Use of commercial embodiments of the subject matter of the two previously identified patents enables a bowling lane proprietor to assure that his lane meets such a specification so as to allow him to retain his certification.
To enable analysis, the ABC specifies that approved lane dressings contain a precise amount of ultraviolet light sensitive dye that will fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light. The more dye present, the greater the fluorescence. Thus, by measuring fluorescence, the quantity of dressing can be determined.
Because the measurement must be made "from edgeboard to edgeboard", and a bowling lane is 42" wide, it is necessary to inspect at a plurality of points across the lane. In use, measurements are made at 11/6" intervals (the width of a board on a conventional bowling lane) for a total of 39 measurements in all. One layer of tape is applied from the 10 pin side of the lane all the way across the lane to the 7 pin edge. At the end board, a one inch, opaque marker is placed on the tape. The tape is extended a few inches further without contacting the lane and then an encapsulating tape strip is applied to the sticky side of the first layer. As a result, a sample containing tape of about 48 inches in length is formed. The 42 inches applied to the lane contains the sample, and that part on the opposite side of the marker serves as a leader for the sample tape when placed in an analyzer. The sample containing tape is advanced through the machine in 11/6" inch increments by manually turning a knob for a tape drive system that includes detents to provide a perceptible indication that the tape has advanced 11/16". With each advance of the tape, a meter is read and the value manually recorded. The same may be plotted on a graph or the like to illustrate the distribution of dressing across the lane at the location the sample tape was taken.
While the system works extremely well for it's intended purpose, its use can be time consuming, taking up to 20 minutes to analyze a single sample tape. Moreover, because the system takes but a single reading every 11/16", there is some possibility that the reading will not be representative of the condition at that particular point, more so than if several readings were taken each 11/16".
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems.